Five airlines have filed preliminary applications to serve Visalia under the Essential Air Service contract. The airlines include the existing contractor Great Lakes Airline which flies daily from Visalia to Los Angeles. The current two-year contract expires at the end of September. Airport manager Mario Cifuentez says in August a City Council committee will recommend which of the five proposals to recommend to the Federal Aviation Administration which will have the final say.

Other airlines seeking the route are:

• Portland-based Seaport Airlines which operates an average of 140 daily scheduled flights to 23 cities in nine states, including operations in southeast Alaska. Seaport competed in the last round with Great Lakes in Visalia but was not favored in part because Visalia sees value in daily connections to LAX as opposed to other hubs. Seaport was proposing to fly 9-seat planes compared to Great Lakes with 19-seat planes.

• Mokulele Airlines, which flies in Hawaii but is owned by Arizona-based Transpac Aviation, in business since 2011. The company has ESA contracts to several small Hawaii airports.

• San Francisco-based Boutique Airlines which flies small airplanes between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

• Wine Country Express, for which no information was provided.

Visalia had been disappointed that Great Lakes has not stepped up the number of flights to LAX but the carrier has been held back by the lack of qualified pilots available with the proper training after the FAA last year increased the requirements for regional carriers. Under the new rules, the federal Department of Transportation raised the minimum training hours for co-pilots from 250 to 1500.

Since January 1, 2014 , Great Lakes Airlines has stopped service to 14 small cities in eight states. In its annual report, the Cheyenne, Wyo.-based airline said it lacked enough pilots to support the service.

The pilot shortage has hurt the company’s bottom line with financial filings of the publicly-traded company suggesting that without new sources of financing it might cease service.

To help it survive Great Lakes has lobbied Congress to push the FAA to allow relaxed rules to offer ESA service with pilots that can fly 9-passenger planes under the old rules. With FAA approval, Great Lakes has been ripping out half the seats on its 19-passenger planes to qualify under less restrictive rules.

Visalia airport manager Cifuentez says Great Lakes application indicates “they are likely going to be doing the same thing in Visalia.”

Cifuentez says the other four applicants seek to connect Visalia with Los Angeles, Burbank or Oakland.